Malkangiri: Subarna and Laxmichandra Jani, a tribal couple hailing from the Paraja community here, celebrated the birth of their daughter Sasmita four years back.
However, the couple’s joy was short-lived. Sasmita showed signs of mental disability about six months after her birth. The family was then living in Gunduriguda of Ward-9 of the municipality. A desperate Laxmichandra took the help of several traditional healers of the area but there was no improvement in her condition.
He then admitted her to the district headquarters hospital in 2013. This too has failed to bring about any perceptible improvement in her condition, and her parents lament that they are paying the price for not having immunized their daughter after her birth.
The husband and wife work as domestic helps and say they tie their daughter in their home as they fear she might wander off in their absence. “We cannot afford to take our daughter to hospitals in Berhampur, Cuttack or Visakhapatnam for better treatment. Some help from the government will go a long way but we don’t know if it is in our fate,” said the girl’s mother Subarna.
When contacted, Child Line’s Malkangiri unit secretary Nityananda Pradhan said he was unaware of the incident. The child would be taken and placed in the custody of the child welfare committee, Pradhan said.
However, locals alleged the child protection committee is not functioning at all in the district. Backing their claim, they pointed out as to how such a serious incident failed to catch their attention in the last three years.
The district child protection officer couldn’t be contacted over the issue. PNN
